Conference on Caucasus situation to be held in Armenia
06:4525/05/2010 YEREVAN, May 25 (RIA Novosti) - An international conference on the situation in the Caucasus and prospects of regional security is to be held in the Armenian capital Yerevan on Tuesday, the organizational committee told RIA Novosti.
The conference is organized by Russia's CIS Institute. Its director, State Duma deputy Konstantin Zatulin, said the forum will discuss the new geopolitical reality that established in the region in the recent years.
The regional situation changed when Russia recognized the independence of Abkhazia and South Ossetia after a five-day war with Georgia in August 2008 that began when Georgian forces attacked South Ossetia in an attempt to bring it back under central control.
The two former Georgian republics broke away from the South Caucasus country in the early 1990s after the collapse of the Soviet Union.
Zatulin also said regional security, stability, integration and cooperation will be touched upon. He said relations between Armenia and Turkey, as well as the Nagorny Karabakh settlement, will be discussed.
A long-standing dispute over Nagorny Karabakh has been a sticking point in relations between the two South Caucasus states of Armenia and Azerbaijan.
A fragile ceasefire has been in place in the region since a brutal war between the two countries over the disputed enclave in early 1990s, which claimed more than 30,000 lives on both sides.
Karabakh has since remained under Armenian control. Baku has fiercely opposed any decision on Karabakh that could be interpreted as giving the region independence from Azerbaijan.
The Nagorny Karabakh issue is an obstacle to opening borders and reestablishing diplomatic relations between Armenia and Turkey, which has close ties with Azerbaijan.
Politicians, public figures and experts from Russia, South Caucasus countries, Iran and Turkey will attend the conference.
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